The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) has released the latest estimates of the global burden of cancer ahead of the World Cancer Day.
In India, breast, oral and cervical cancer accounted for 32 per cent of the new cases. India reported over 14.13 lakh new cancer cases and 9.16 lakh deaths in 2022. The top five cancers among Indian women were found to be those of breast, cervix, ovary, mouth and colorectum. The top five cancers among men were those of the oral cavity, lung, oesophagus, colorectum and stomach.
The total breast cancer cases stood at 13.6 percent, followed by cancers of the lips and oral cavity (10.2 percent). Meanwhile, cervical cancer stood at 9 percent while a significant number of cases — 5.8 percent — were of lung cancer.
The third most frequent cancer among women was ovarian (6.6 per cent) in 2022. Among men, oral cancer was the most-occuring with 1,07,812 new cases (15.6 per cent) followed by lung cancer (58,970 new cases – 8.5 per cent) and cancer of the oesophagus (45608- 6.6 per cent). Breast cancer was the leading cause of death (98,337 – 13.7 per cent) followed by oral cancer (79,979 – 5.6 per cent) and cervical cancer (79,906 – 11.2 per cent) in the country in 2022.
In 2022, there were an estimated 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths globally. The estimated number of people who were alive within 5 years following a cancer diagnosis was 53.5 million. About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease.
Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death (1.8 million deaths, 18.7% of the total cancer deaths) followed by colorectal cancer (900 000 deaths, 9.3%), liver cancer (760 000 deaths, 7.8%), breast cancer (670 000 deaths, 6.9%) and stomach cancer (660 000 deaths, 6.8%). Lung cancer’s re-emergence as the most common cancer is likely related to persistent tobacco use in Asia.
Cervical cancer was the eighth most commonly occurring cancer globally and the ninth leading cause of cancer death, accounting for 661 044 new cases and 348 186 deaths. The global healthy agency said in a statement that the global estimates reveal striking inequities in the cancer burden according to human development, the UN body said in a statement.
“This is particularly true for breast cancer. In countries with a very high HDI, 1 in 12 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 71 women die of it. By contrast, in countries with a low HDI; while only one in 27 women is diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, one in 48 women will die from it.This is particularly true for breast cancer,” WHO stated.
Over 35 million new cancer cases are predicted in 2050, a 77 percent increase from the estimated 20 million cases in 2022, WHO said.
“Women in lower HDI countries are 50% less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women in high HDI countries, yet they are at a much higher risk of dying of the disease due to late diagnosis and inadequate access to quality treatment,” explains Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram, Deputy Head of the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC.
The rapidly growing global cancer burden reflects both population ageing and growth, as well as changes to people’s exposure to risk factors, several of which are associated with socioeconomic development. Tobacco, alcohol and obesity are key factors behind the increasing incidence of cancer, with air pollution still a key driver of environmental risk factors, WHO warned.
